MOZART AND THE PRACTICE OF SACRED MUSIC, 1781-91 a ...

Mozart’s selection of two homophonic pieces on the one hand and a fugal movement on the
other implies an intention to discover the stylistic parameters then current in the Hofkapelle.
Mozart had encountered Reutter before: on a visit to Vienna at the age of six, the composer
with his family “bey dem Kaiserl: H: Capellmeister v Reitter zu Mittag gespeiset.” 143 In
Salzburg, Mozart and his father copied performance parts for a mass by Reutter (Hofer
Messen 20) for use at the Cathedral. 144 As late as 1823, Beethoven requested a sample of
Reutter’s music while working on the Missa Solemnis, as Hofmusikgraf Dietrichstein reported
to Moritz von Lichnowsky: “Ich schicke dir hier zugleich die Partitur einer Messe von
Reutter welche Beethoven zu sehen wünschte. Wahr ist es, daß S.M. der Kaiser diesen Stil
liebt, indessen braucht Beethoven, wenn er eine Messe schreibt, sich nicht daran zu
halten.” 145
The journey to northern Germany in 1789 provided Mozart with several
opportunities to engage with sacred music. Writing to Constanze from Dresden on 16 April
1789, the composer wrote:
Montags den 13 ten , nachdem wir bey Neumanns frühstück genommen hatten gingen wir alle
nach Hof in die Kapelle, die Messe war vom Naumann |: welcher sie selbst dirigirte :| - sehr
Mittelmäßig; - wir waren in einem oratoire der Musik gegenüber... 146
There seems no way of identifying which of Naumann’s masses was heard that day, as it was
not customary in Dresden to note performance dates on the parts. Johann Gottlieb
Naumann (1741-1801), Oberhofkapellmeister in Dresden since 1786, had a complex working
143 MBA, i.62.
144 Walter Senn, “Der Catalogus Musicalis des Salzburger Doms (1788),” in Mozart-Jahrbuch 1973 (Salzburg:
1974), 185-86. See also Eisen, “The Mozarts' Salzburg Music Library,” 127.
145 Sieghard Brandenburg, ed., Ludwig Van Beethoven: Briefwechsel. Gesamtausgabe, 7 vols. (Munich: G. Henle,
1996-98), v.55.
146 MBA, iv.82.
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